Hopefully you are all enjoying the season and seeking refuge from the cold in warm kitchens. Thank you to all of our members who have taken the time to complete our end of season survey, the response has been incredible. We've read all of your feedback and appreciate your comments. We're working on our 2014 farm share application and hope to have it up soon. Thank you for your patience as we iron out a few details.

The fields have been put to rest for the winter and the tractors have been sent off for servicing. Alongside a flurry of holiday cards, seed catalogs for the 2014 growing season are arriving in our mailbox. It seems that there are only a matter of days between the end of one farm season and the beginning of another but we are enjoying the slower pace while it lasts!

Despite the fact that we don't have any crops in the ground right now, there is still plenty to do including updating our accounting and records as well as planning for next year. We also use this time to catch up on reading agricultural newsletters and journals to give us insights into current farming trends and research. Most importantly, we are in the midst of searching for a new Assistant Farm Manager who will help us run our farm next year.

Thank you to our small group of readers who check in on farm happenings from time to time. There's something amazing about coaxing thousands of pounds of vegetables out of the earth and we believe the daily challenges and triumphs are worth sharing. When you read about where your food comes from you have a greater understanding of what goes into growing it. Blogs have always been a source of information and inspiration for us as we work to establish our new CSA. One of my favorite windows into small farming/homesteading is the Cold Antler Farm blog. While Jenna's model is different from ours, her experiments in self sufficiency on a small farm in New York are fun to read about. I spent some time catching up with one of our members recently and she shared that her father dried her butternut and pumpkin seeds during his visit from Poland - leaving them behind for her to feed to the squirrels. Because they need to eat during the winter too. Hear that west windsor squirrels? You get a share too. So funny how a little story of kindness has a way of warming you on a cold day! Happy Holidays from our family at Appelget Farm!

Leave a Reply.

This blog is about our small family farm and homestead located in Central New Jersey. We grow for our own table but we also grow for the tables of our families, friends and neighbors through our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.